Scope

This policy applies to all appointed staff hired within SoIC.

Policy Statement

All appointed staff hires should follow the standard procedures below. In addition, all UHRS polices should be followed. See http://hr.iu.edu/employment/bloomington/recruit_procedures.html . Should any of the procedures below appear to contradict UHRS policy, the hiring committee chair should contact the Sr. Director of Administration and Finance to discuss before proceeding.

Reason for the Policy

The school needs to follow hiring best practices to ensure the school, and IU, is protected from legal action due to bad hiring practices. The school also wants to ensure the school is hiring the most qualified candidates for vacant positions.

Procedures

Approval for filling a position

When a position becomes, or will become, available the direct supervisor should notify the Sr. Director of Administration and Finance (SDAF) to seek approval for filling the position.

To create a new staff position, see SOIC Policy for Creating a New Staff Position.

If desirable, the direct supervisor may request an overlap between the old and new employee for training purposes.

The direct supervisor should have a preliminary discussion with the SDAF concerning the expected salary range for the new hire.

It should also be determined if the position will be posted on the UHRS website, or just internally within the school.

When the SDAF has approved the position, it can be posted on the UHRS website (or internally only) by the HR Manager.

Creating a Hiring Committee

The direct supervisor will normally be the hiring committee chair and will need to select hiring committee members. The committee should include faculty, see the SoIC Policy for Faculty Involvement in Staff Hiring.

To ensure that equal opportunity interests are observed, the membership of each search committee should be composed of a diverse group of people to the extent possible.

Reviewing and Interviewing Applicants

The UHRS application system will collect on-line applications. UHRS will review the applicants for any minimum qualifications required and will refer all qualified applicants for committee review.

If an employee’s family member, blood relative or close friend should apply for the position, the related staff member should not be involved in the hiring process, or at the very least, not be involved in interviewing the candidate. The staff member should also be excluded from designing the interview process, including writing interview questions, to remove any perception of unfair assistance in the process.

If an employee’s family member, blood relative, or close friend applies for a position, everyone on the hiring committee should be informed of the relationship. It should not be assumed that relationships are known.

All UHRS referred applicants should be carefully reviewed, and a list of top candidates should be created by the committee for further consideration.

UHRS will note in the application system if the position is underrepresented. The school promotes a diverse and inclusive environment for its students, faculty and staff and expects underrepresented candidates to be given full consideration.

Should only one top candidate be selected, this is ok, as long as it can be documented and clearly shown that the other candidates do not meet the top candidate’s qualifications.

All search committee deliberations should maintain a strict level of confidentiality.

Next steps could include requests for additional information from top candidates, telephone/video conference interviews, in person interviews, testing of relevant skills, having candidates give presentations, etc.

Whichever next step is chosen, it is very important that each candidate goes through the same process, including being asked the same questions. This ensures every candidate is given an equal opportunity to succeed under the same conditions.

Checking References and Making Offers

Once a top candidate is chosen, their references should be contacted. Letters of reference do not count as a valid reference check. The school prefers three reference checks, normally completed through phone calls.

The current employer/supervisor should be one of the three referees contacted. If a candidate has not provided their current employer as a reference, and is hesitant to do so, they should be told they are the top candidate, but that we need a good reference from their current employer to proceed. Should the candidate still not allow this, the SDAF should be contacted to discuss how to proceed.

Reference checking can also be helpful if there are multiple top candidates. Checking references can assist in differentiating between the candidates.

Tip: consider using the school’s staff evaluation form to interview the referee and have the referee evaluate the candidate using the school’s 5 point scale. This form covers all aspects of a person’s performance from attendance, to attention to detail, to interactions with others, to performance with their job duties.

When the committee selects the top candidate, they should seek hiring approval from the faculty supervisor (see Policy for Faculty Involvement in Staff Hiring).

After the faculty supervisor has approved the hire, the direct supervisor should discuss specific salary negotiation parameters with the SDAF.

If it is an IU candidate, UHRS and VPCFO need to approve the new salary before it is offered.

Non-IU candidates only need UHRS approval if the salary is outside of the UHRS defined salary market range.

Direct supervisors and the SDAF should always carefully consider potential internal equity issues before making offers.

Once an accepted offer has been verbally negotiated, the direct supervisor should request an offer letter from the HR Manager to forward to the candidate, confirming the offer.

Other Items

All hiring notes should be kept by the hiring committee members. These notes may be useful if the school receives an official inquiry of how and why the top candidate was chosen.

Please coordinate with the HR Manager to organize a welcome breakfast for the new employee.

Responsible Parties

The hiring committee chair is ultimately responsible for ensuring the hiring process follows SoIC and UHRS hiring policies and best practices. If a chair does not feel comfortable assuming that responsibility they can request the HR Director be part of the hiring committee to oversee the process. The chair should also feel fee, at any point in the process, to contact the SDAF, the HR Director, or UHRS for guidance. If the chair has any concerns that the process has not followed policy and best practices, then they should inform the SDAF immediately to report the issue and discuss remedies. Failure to follow hiring policies can expose IU to legal action, and can lead to disciplinary action for the chair and/or hiring committee members that break policy.

Definitions

Appointed staff – all professional and support staff. While these procedures may be helpful for hiring temporary hourly staff, they are not required. Hiring hourly employees is often done quite informally, with no job posting, no interview, normally no faculty involvement, etc. However, there should still be caution used if relatives are being considered as candidates. Please follow this URHS policy: http://hr.iu.edu/policies/uwide/minors.html

Most qualified candidate vs. most experienced candidate– This is a common hiring committee issue. Sometimes highly experienced people apply for lower level jobs which can lead to concerns over longevity in the position. It is of course illegal to screen on the basis of being over-qualified, however, it is allowable to ask questions like these:

Are you aware this is an entry level position that pays $x?

Why is someone of your experience interested in this position?

We are paying $x for this position, how does that fit with your long term salary goals?

We are concerned about you staying in this position long term, do you have anything you can share with us that could remedy those concerns?

Referee – A person who can provide a mostly unbiased opinion of a candidate. It should not be a family member, the candidate’s minister, peer colleague, close friend, etc. It should normally be a prior or current supervisor.